There are a few things to note about forum engagement vs playerbase that's worth mentioning. The amount of players active on either here or reddit is small in comparison to the total population, and I think it's safe to assume that those outspoken in these spaces are likely more impassioned about job design issues overall than the population of players that are not active in thread discussions. Having said that, there's a fatal flaw in using the broader audience as a weapon against the criticisms that the healers, or any job generally faces: we have no way to actually quantify that difference in player opinion.

How many players that do not visit reddit or the forums actively think positively of the healers? How many of them feel more neutral about the healers, but are content playing as one? How many of them are not active healer mains and merely flex into the healing role as needed? How many of them would feel unhappy with the types of changes regularly proposed on the healer forums? How many of them aren't bothered by healers currently, but would enjoy the types of changes proposed on the healer forums? How many of them would feel indifferent and wouldn't change their opinion either way?

Unless you have a way to identify those percentages, you also cannot say that the harsher criticism of healer design found on the healer forums is not reflective of the community's general perception, just more intense or cutthroat. Note that these surveys were shared over on the healer forums earlier than this thread was posted, and it was the healers that started out with a higher vote count of somewhere in the 20s where many of the healers active on the healer forums input their feedback first, resulting in very low averages of around 2.5 - 3.5 for all healers. Now that many more players who do not frequent the healer corner, reddit players, and lurkers have input their feedback, the vote count is significantly higher, and the averages now sit around the 4.5 - 5.5 range. So we've already seen how the perspective has shifted, and I would argue that's is far closer to what the general perception is probably like: the healers aren't hated as much, but aren't really seen as good either--inoffensive.